Émile Mireaux

Émile Mireaux
Mireaux on 27 August 1940
Senator for Hautes-Pyrénées
In office 14 January 1936 – 31 December 1944
Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts
In office 12 July 1940 – 5 September 1940
Preceded by	Albert Rivaud
Succeeded by	Georges Ripert
Personal details
Born	(1885-08-21)21 August 1885 Mont-de-Marsan, Landes, France
Died	27 December 1969(1969-12-27) (aged 84) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Economist, politician and literary historian

Émile Mireaux (21 August 1885 – 27 December 1969) was a French economist, journalist, politician and literary historian. In the 1930s he edited Le Temps and contributed to other right-leaning journals. He became a senator in 1936, and briefly served as a minister in 1940. From 1940 until his death he held a chair in political economy, statistics and finance at the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

Émile Mireaux was born in Mont-de-Marsan, Landes, on 21 August 1885. His father was of Pyrenean origin, was an ordnance officer under General Georges Ernest Boulanger and was serving in the Mont-de-Marsan garrison. His father died when Émile was three years old. After this Émile lived as a boarder at Tarbes and then as an officer's son at the Prytanée National Militaire in La Flèche, where he developed a love of rugby football.

Mireaux was a brilliant secondary school student. He entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1906, and graduated in History and Geography in 1910. He taught at high schools in Alençon and Orléans, and at the Institut Français in Madrid in 1913–14. During World War I (1914–18) he was mobilized as an infantry officer in August 1914 and served until March 1919. He was wounded twice, cited three times and made a knight of the Legion of Honour.

Mireaux was a professor at the preparation center for the grandes écoles in 1919 and 1920, then prepared students for their agrégation at the École Normale Supérieure from 1920 to 1922. For obscure reasons he left the university and went to work for the Société d'études et d'informations économiques (Society for Economic Studies and Information) chaired by Jacques Bardoux. This had been created in 1922 to study economic evolution after the First World War. He was first editor-in-chief of the studies section, then in 1924 took over as managing director in place of André François-Poncet. It was here that he became familiar with economics. Mireaux was economics editor for Le Temps from 1928 to 1931. He was a member of the Redressement Français movement led by Ernest Mercier, and asserted that he was an ardent supporter of economic liberalism.